Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

                   I would like to congratulate the UK Singapore Students’ Council for putting together a relevant and thought-provoking programme.

2                   The Schwab Foundation defines a social entrepreneur as “a pragmatic visionary who achieves large scale, systemic and sustainable social change through a new invention, a different approach, a more rigorous application of known technologies or strategies, or a combination of these”. They have also suggested that it combines the characteristics represented by Richard Branson and Mother Teresa.

3                   Many of you would have heard of Professor Mohammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. You would also have heard earlier from our own Jack Sim, the founder of the World Toilet Organisation, who is probably going to save more lives than anyone else in this room today. He hasn’t won a Nobel Prize yet, but I hope he does. We have other local examples who may be less well known.

4                   Ms Hazel Menon started Immanuel Beauty School, which provides ex-offenders, single mothers and youths-at-risk in Singapore with a second chance at pursuing a career of their choice. Recognising that not all individuals may be suited for a strictly academic path, Hazel provides them with accredited training in beauty skills. In partnership with the community development councils (CDCs), family service centres (FSCs) and halfway houses, Immanuel Beauty School has graduated 6 cohorts of students since its inception in 2006. Through Hazel’s past experience in the beauty industry, Immanuel Beauty School has been able to place all graduates with employers. While they were once considered un-employable, graduates from Immanuel Beauty School now earn between $900 to $1200 a month.

5                   Locally, a group of NUS business students are working with the Patient Care Centre at Tan Tock Seng Hospital to create a better plan to develop, package and market items made by HIV patients. Through their efforts, the students aim to bring in revenue for the centre through the sale of these items which include cellphone charms, ribbon flowers and festive ornaments.

6                   We are seeing more young people like you starting projects that benefit society. In 2002, a group of friends set up the School of Thought – a centre which offers quality tuition for underprivileged students. Their prices are pitched at an affordable level, and part of their profits is channelled to a financial aid scheme which sponsors 50% of the tuition fees for needy students. Taking their passion further, this group of friends have set up a restaurant named Food for Thought. Again part of the profits from the restaurant goes towards their chosen social missions including supporting clean water, fighting poverty and encouraging kind acts.

7                   For social entrepreneurship to grow and flourish in Singapore, more young people need to get involved and apply new and innovative ways to address social issues. Young people like yourselves, who have seen and experienced other parts of the world, are in good position to do this. I hope you will do so, not only because of the good that you will do, but also because of the sense of ownership and social responsibility that you will develop.

8                   The government will provide more support for you to try your ideas. The Singapore Youth Awards has opened its Entrepreneurship Award to recognise young social entrepreneurs. The ComCare Enterprise Fund is a $3 million fund to provide seed-funding for new social enterprises. We also have the Young ChangeMakers Grant, a scheme to provide youths with seed funding to implement their own community projects. The proposals are evaluated and mentored by your fellow youth leaders.

9                    Youths can seek funding from other avenues like the Citibank – YMCA Youth for Causes programme that provides youths with seed funding to embark on business projects to earn money for a non-profit organisation. This year, there are 100 youth teams working on 100 charity projects aiming to raise more than $900,000. A team of youths, who call themseves GoldenLeap, will be raising funds for the Singapore Action Group of Elders by compiling recipes into a book and releasing it for sale to the public. Simple but meaningful projects like this will go a long way in cultivating social responsibility in the younger generation, giving them a sense of what social entrepreneurship means. 

10             For the Youth Sector Organisations, there is the Young Social Entrepreneurship (YSE) Incubator Scheme, which aims to nurture promising new players or start-ups in youth services or youth development. An organisation may receive up to $40,000 for a period of two years. Here I would like to highlight an organisation that was supported by the YSE Scheme and went on to establish itself very successfully as a going concern. The Student Advisory Centre (SAC) started out as a centre where runaway youths could seek help and eventually reconcile with their families. The Centre now reaches out to children with poor self-esteem, behavioural problems or have difficulties coping in schools. Its current Centre Director, Mr Trevor Xie, ventured out into youth-based social service while he was still a budding young undergraduate. He even put his studies on hold to set up a Centre for troubled youths.

11             My bottom line is that there is a great need for social entrepreneurs, there are many opportunities to make a significant impact on society in Singapore and the world at large and we will empower you to do so.   

Thank You.